Milan's vice-president, Adriano Galliani, believes David Beckham will return to the club for another loan spell from Los Angeles Galaxy in January, describing a deal as "very likely" despite reports that the Rossoneri could not afford the England midfielder's wages.

Beckham, who is eager to improve his chances of going to the World Cup by moving back to Europe after Galaxy's season ends, performed well in a six-month loan with Milan last season. Another positive experience at San Siro could help him retain his place in Fabio Capello's squad for the tournament in South Africa.

"It's very likely that Beckham will join us in January and stay with us on loan until June," Galliani said, "but I don't give anything as fact until there's a signature." A deal may depend on Galaxy agreeing to pay a proportion of Beckham's wages while he is on loan in Italy.

Milan are far below their usual standards both in financial and sporting terms. In the summer they sold Kaká to Real Madrid to make up for huge financial losses which were exacerbated by the club's failure to qualify for the 2008‑09 Champions League. "Milan has had unthinkable balance sheets with losses of €50-60m [£47-56m] per year," said the club's owner, Silvio Berlusconi, to justify the sale of their best player. "In these times we can't afford these losses."

The money received for Kaká was not reinvested in the transfer market, with Milan often failing to meet the asking price for their targets. In the summer they failed to sign players such as Aly Cissokho, Edin Dzeko and Luís Fabiano.

Although Fininvest – Berlusconi's company – denied that the club is for sale, rumours about a change of ownership are rife, with a Libyan group and an Albanian oil magnate stating their interest. Last week Fininvest was ordered to pay almost €750m to a rival media group, CIR, in a long-running legal dispute, although the company has appealed.

Milan have made a poor start to the season under their new coach, Leonardo, who was promoted to replace Carlo Ancelotti. They have only nine points from seven Serie A games and were beaten 4-0 by Internazionale in the Milan derby. They also lost 1-0 at home to Zürich in the Champions League.